Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

GLASGOW
has also formed in itself an important article of export.
When the coal in the neighbourhood began to be worked
is not exactly known, but we know that in Scotland in
the 14th century coal was a common article of merchan-
dise, and was exported and sometimes taken as ballast
for ships. The first notice we find of the Glasgow coal-
field is in 1578, when the Archbishop let the 'coil-
heuchtis and colis within the baronie of glasgw ' for the
space of three years at the yearly rent of £40 Scots
(equal to about £5 sterling at the time), and 270 ' laids '
of coal (the ' laid ' being, according to Mr Macgeorge,
about 320 pounds). These coal pits were probably in
Gorbals. In 1655 the town council let these pits, or
others probably in the same quarter in ' the muir
heughe,' at a rent of £33, 4s., the tenants to employ
eight hewers, and not to charge more than 4d. for nine
gallons. In 1760 the price per cart of about half a ton
was Is. 3d. , but they became after this rapidly dearer,
for in 1778 they were 3s. ior about the same quantity.
In the latter year the whole quantity taken to Glasgow,
including what was used for Glasgow, Greenock, and
Port Glasgow, as well as what was exported elsewhere,
was only 181,800 carts, or about 82,000 tons. In 1836
there were 37 pits in the neighbourhood, from which
561,049 tons of coal were brought to Glasgow, of which
124 were exported, and 437,047 tons were used in the
city. In 1852 the exports were 200,560 tons, and the
whole quantity brought into the city was probably
about 1,074,558 tons. In 1878 the exports were 566,720
tons, 1,122,543 tons in 1890, and 808,075 tons in
1895.
The coal and iron combined have made the Clyde also
the great centre for the construction of iron and steel ships,
marine steam engines and boilers, and a vast amount of
kindred work, as is highly fitting, seeing that it was
the cradle of steam navigation. Henry Bell, as has
been already mentioned, had the Comet built at Port
Glasgow by Messrs John Wood & Co. in 1811. The
Comet made her trial trip on 18 Jan. 1812, and on
her first trip from Glasgow to Greenock she made
5 miles an hour against a head wind. She was only
of 28 tons burden and with an engiue of 4 horse-
power, and cost but £192; yet from this small begin-
ning dates the great and important shipbuilding in-
dustry on the Clyde. Bell's invention was not patented,
and was promptly seized by able, enterprising, monied
men to be copied and improved. By 1813 she was fol-
lowed by the Elizabeth (10 horse-power), by the Clyde (14
horse-power), and the Glasgow (14 horse-power), all
built by Wood at Port Glasgow, and engined respec-
tively by Thomson of Tradeston, by Robertson, and by
Bell. The new method of navigation was at first sup-
posed to be suitable only for smooth inland waters,
and did not for a little pass beyond the Clyde ; but a
steam vessel of better build was put on trial by David
Napier to carry goods and passengers in the coasting
trade in the open Channel, and the trial proved so suc-
cessful that its results are now apparent in every sea
that has been navigated by civilised men. The building
of sailing vessels on the Clyde went on increasing with
the increase of commerce, and now the building of
steam vessels became of rapid importance. During the
eighteen years, however, after the Comet's first voyage,
all the vessels were small and mostly of timber, and the
whole aggregate did not exceed 5000 tons, but then
many large ones came to be required, and both small
and large were eventually constructed of iron. Many
other improvements in construction were also made, a
considerable number of them being due to David Napier,
who had made the boiler of the Comet, and who
ultimately combined shipbuilding with his former
trade of marine engine-making, and started on a career
that was highly successful from every point of view.
Besides his many improvements in boilers and engines,
Napier first suggested the improved clipper bow by
making the stem taper instead of coming in with a
sharp round bend. Details of the shipbuilding output
will be found in the section on History and also in the
article Clyde, but it may here be mentioned that in
684
GLASGOW
recent years some of the largest steam-vessels afloat were
launched from the Fairfield and Clydebank shipbuilding
yards. From the latter there was launched on 1 March
1892 the Bamillies, a first-class battle-ship of 14,300
tons displacement, 380 feet long, and having a steel
armour-belt 18 inches thick. From the Fairfield yard
in August of 1892 and February 1893 came the twin
Cunard liners Campania and Lucania, which are the
largest ships that have been built since the Great
Eastern, and are therefore now the largest ships in the
world. Measuring 620 feet long by 65J wide and 43
deep, they have a gross tonnage of 13,500 tons.
The Harbour. — The harbour and docks of Glasgow
afford one of the most magnificent illustrations that can
be found of the assistance that may be given to nature
by the artifice and skill of man. ' Nowhere, ' says
M. Simonin, in an article on Glasgow and the Clyde
published in the Nouvelle Revue of Nov. 1880, ' as
at Glasgow is there revealed in such luminous traits
all that can be done by the efforts of man, combined
with patience, energy, courage, and perseverance, to
assist nature, and if necessary to correct her. To widen
and deepen a river previously rebellious against carrying
boats, to turn it into a great maritime oanal, to bring
the waters where it was necessary to bring the largest
ships, and, finally, to gather a population of 750,000
inhabitants, all devoted to commerce and industry upon
a spot where only yesterday there was but a modest
little town, almost destitute of every species of traffic —
such is the miracle which in less than a century men
have performed at Glasgow.' Within the last hundred
years or so the Clyde navigation works have, says Mr
Deas, the engineer to the Trust, converted the river
Clyde 'between Glasgow and the sea, from a shallow
stream, navigable only by fishing wherries of at most 4
or 5 feet draught, and fordable even 12 miles below Glas-
gow, to a great channel of the sea, bearing on its waters
the ships of all nations, and of the deepest draught, bring-
ing to this City of the West the fruits and ores of Spain,
the wines of Portugal and France, the palm-oil and
ivory of Africa, the teas, spices, cotton, and jute of
India, the teas of China, the cotton, cattle, corn, flour,
beef, timber — even doors and windows ready-made —
and the numerous notions of America, the corns of
Egypt and Russia, the flour and wines of Hungary, the
sugar, teak, and mahogany of the West Indies, the
wools, preserved meats, and gold of the great Australian
colonies, the food supplies of the sister Isle, and the
thousands of other things which go to make the imports
of the two-mile harbour of Glasgow. '
Thedetails of the deepening of the riverClyde havebeen
already given in the article Clyde, and the particulars
here given will be confined to the harbour proper. The
harbour extends along the river for a distance of practi-
cally over two miles and a half. It is for this distance
from 400 to 500 feet wide; and, besides the natural
basin of the river, includes three tidal docks, one of them
the largest in Scotland. It is divided into two parts,
known as the Upper Harbour and the Lower Harbour —
the former extending from Albert bridge to Glasgow
Bridge, the latter from Glasgow Bridge down to the
mouth of the river Kelvin. The quays on the N bank
of the river are as follows:— In the Upper Harbour the
Custom House Quay extending from Victoria Bridge to
Glasgow Bridge, Broomielaw or the Steamboat Quay,
Anderston Quay, Lancefield Quay, Finnieston Quay,
Stobcross Quay, Stobcross Slip Docks, Yorkhill Wharf,
and Govan and Partick Wharf. On the S side, from
Glasgow Bridge downwards, are Clyde Place Quay, Wind-
millcroft Quay, Springfield Quay and Terminus Quay,
Mavisbank Quay, and Plantation Quay. The water area
is about 180 acres. The average depth at high water of
spring tides varies in different parts from 19 to 35 feet,
the shallowest berth being in Kingston and the deepest
in Cessnock Dock. Over the rest of the harbour the
ordinary depth is from 24 to 30 feet. The total length
of quayage, which was 382 yards in 1800, 697 in 1820
— in both cases all on the N side of the river — 1973 in
1840 (1233 on N side), 4376 in 1860, 7464 in 1880,